1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mechanism for holding various kinds of articles, and particularly to an article-holding assembly for a vehicle or a wheelchair, which is collapsible, portable and convenient for adjusting the position of an article to be held.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is often desirable to have an article-holding mechanism for holding certain things, such as a tray, a cup, and the like when sitting or travelling in a vehicle such as in an automobile or in a boat or on a wheelchair or in fact when sitting in an armchair. So far various types of such devices have been disclosed, for example, by U.S. Pat. No. 4,174,669 issued on Nov. 20, 1979 to A. Roger Lalonde, U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,499 issued on Aug. 1, 1989 to Ilmars Ozols, U.S. Pat. No. 4,359,004 issued on Nov. 16, 1982 to Austin Chappell, U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,164 issued on Oct. 31, 1989 to Walter H. Baucom, U.S. Pat. No. 4,672,898 issued on June 16, 1987 to Henry A. Davidson, U.S. Pat. No. 2,657,107 Issued on Oct. 27, 1953 to T. Bisaga et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,842,174 issued on June 27, 1989 to Mark E. Sheppard et al.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,164 discloses a holding device for a vehicle. The holding device comprises a mounting means having a hollow cylindrical member with a tab thereon and a slot therein, an articulated member which includes a plug means having a radially extending key mating with the slot in the mounting means and a detent-type joining means having a hub with a plurality of external teeth or splines and a pair of hooks as an additional axial fastening means, and a cup holding means which also has a joint means having a collar with a plurality of internal teeth or splines for intermeshing with the teeth on the hub and fastened in place by the hooks. In use, the mounting means is inserted into a cigarette lighter opening in a vehicle, the plug means is inserted into the cylindrical hollow on the mounting means with the key fitting within the slot and the plug means is rotated 90.degree. so that it is locked therein. The device may include another articulated member having two similar joint means for lengthening the device. It is obvious that the structure of the device, specifically, the connection portions of the device, are complicated so that such device is not easily manufactured. Another significant shortcoming for such device is that during use, such as in having lunch, the device must be detached in order to adjust the position of the article being held. This is clearly very inconvenient.
Further, conventional devices are normally designed to hold one or two particular types of articles, such as a table, or a cup holder, or a telephone or the like so that it is not convenient for changing them frequently to hold various kinds of articles. Furthermore, most of the conventional devices can not be easily installed, detached and carried in a small box or a suitcase. However, since the dimensions and structure of a vehicle interior or a wheelchair or an armchair varies from one to another, and the habits of people differs from person to person, it is desirable that an article-holding device can be easily adjusted to hold various kinds of articles. For example, people sometimes may want to paint from life or nature in a bus or a car. In this case, the paper-holding board is required to be held at a certain angle with respect to the eyes of the artist. Sometimes, people may want to heat water or eat food, so that a heater or a tray may have to be supported in a horizontal manner in the vehicle or on a wheelchair. All these requirements or possible choices of application for an article-holding device for a vehicle or a wheelchair require it to be easily adjustable, easily detachable and easily portable. However, the prior art devices do not very well satisfy those requirements.
The present invention discloses an improved article-holding device which can be used in vehicles or on wheelchairs or armchairs and the like.